www.ssoar.info The challenge of trawling in Norwegian fisheries and politics in the first half of the 20th century Svihus, Årstein Veröffentlichungsversion / Published Version Zeitschriftenartikel / journal article Empfohlene Zitierung / Suggested Citation: Svihus, Å. (2007). The challenge of trawling in Norwegian fisheries and politics in the first half of the 20th century. Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv, 30, 373-381. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-55778-2 Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Dieser Text wird unter einer Deposit-Lizenz (Keine This document is made available under Deposit Licence (No Weiterverbreitung - keine Bearbeitung) zur Verfügung gestellt. Redistribution - no modifications). We grant a non-exclusive, non- Gewährt wird ein nicht exklusives, nicht übertragbares, transferable, individual and limited right to using this document. persönliches und beschränktes Recht auf Nutzung dieses This document is solely intended for your personal, non- Dokuments. 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Mit der Verwendung dieses Dokuments erkennen Sie die Nutzungsbedingungen an. ̈ ÅRSTEIN SVIHUS The Challenge of Trawling in Norwegian Fisheries and Politics in the First Half of the 20th Century The development of steamboat trawling from the 1890s onwards represented a clear step towards further industrialisation of the fisheries of northern Europe. The main aim of this ar- ticle is to explain why large-scale trawling developed late in Norway, and also to focus on the restrictive laws that were passed against trawling. From its early beginnings with small steam trawlers carrying out trawling close to the shore, this sort of fishing technology soon spread to other countries, steam trawlers rapidly taking a larger part of the total catch. Even before the First World War, British, German and French trawlers could be found fishing between the North Sea and the White Sea in Russia. After the war there was further growth, and trawling became a major part of the fishing industry in sev- eral countries. Trawling is also a major factor explaining the large increase in total catches of fish in the North Atlantic.1 From 1910 to 1934 the catches of bottom fish (most of it cod) increased from 1,127,000 tons to 1,854,000 tons, a growth of 65 per cent. It were the catches from the Barents Sea and the seas around Iceland that increased the most, with a growth of 144 and 176 per cent respectively. On these fishing grounds more than 69 per cent of the catches were taken by trawlers.2 In other countries, the development of a trawling fleet was responsible for a huge increase in catches. For instance, Germany’s total catch increased by almost 350 per cent between 1913 and 1937.3 Countries like France and the Netherlands to some extent experienced a similar develop- ment. The French trawler fleet even had some of the largest and most modern trawlers of its time. In the Thirties the largest was of 1200 tons with a diesel engine and a crew of more than 50 men. The production on board was basically of salted fish (cod), but there were also small- scale plants producing cod liver oil and fishmeal. Some of the trawlers were even equipped with freezers.4 In general, then, trawling underwent an extensive modernisation during the interwar period: the boats were bigger, newly developed gear made it possible to trawl on deeper grounds, increasing fish production, and telecommunication was introduced into the trawlers in the Thir- ties. In the north-western parts of the Soviet Union, too, in Murmansk and Archangelsk, the fish industry was partly based on large trawlers. In 1935 there were 77 active trawlers on the north- eastern coast of the Soviet Union.5 Even so, during the whole of this period Great Britain had the largest fleet, with about 1600 large steam trawlers in 1934.6 But many of these were older vessels, and of the 823 trawlers based at Hull and Grimsby, only 344 were less than 15 years old.7 All these fleets were fishing for home consumption, but in an export-oriented country like Iceland, too, trawler fishing became a very important basis for fish exports. The Icelanders bought their first trawlers shortly after the beginning of the century; in 1912 they had 20 traw- lers, and by 1930 the figure was 40.8 In 1934 trawlers accounted for about 40 per cent of Ice- land’s bottom fish catch. 374 The exception: Norway As we have seen, trawling was generally expanding in northern Europe during the early decades of the twentieth century, and thus was an important part of the expansion of fishing and fish- related industry in the various countries of this region. However, in Norway the situation was rather different and it was not until after World War II that a relatively large trawler fleet was developed. Up to 1930 Norwegian-based trawling con- sisted of small-scale trawling only (with boats under 50 tons). Most of the trawlers were solely for shrimp fishing, a kind of fishery that for a few decades took on significant proportions. With a few exceptions, such as Norwegians undertaking straw man fishing in the Moray Firth, the small number of attempts to initiate large-scale trawling in Norway did not bring lasting busi- ness success. The first shift came in the early Thirties, as new measures to run trawlers profita- bly proved effective. This happened at a time when, as we have seen, other countries had long since developed a considerable fleet of trawlers. Why was the development different in Norway? This is a difficult and far-reaching question, but some possible answers may be outlined. One possible reason is the condition of the Norwegian seabed, which only has a narrow shelf close to the shore, and then steepens. Also, a bumpy ground made trawling in Norwegian waters more challenging than in the western parts of the North Sea. Another explanation might be found in the industrial situation. The Norwegian fish industry at the time was mainly established in western Norway, and was based not on bottom fish but on pelagic species like herring, brisling and sardines. The structure of the large companies in this industry was one of vertical integration, from modern fishing vessels to the production of label stickers. Trawling, on the other hand, was not a part of their integrated structure. However, it is interesting to note that before the First World War the largest factory in the Norwegian canning industry, Chr. Bjelland & Co. A/S, partly based its production on fish balls made from haddock and some cod provided by German trawlers. During the war this supply naturally ceased, and the company did not start its own trawling until after World War II, and then only for herring.9 While the part of the fishing fleet that was based on pelagic fish like herring received a high degree of modernisation and investment at an early stage, the development of the cod-based fishing fleet underwent modernisation of a different kind. New types of boats were introduced early in the twentieth century, and small engines soon became more common than oars or sail. But it remained a fleet consisting mostly of small vessels, and during the whole interwar period most of its catches were taken close to the shore. This is also the reason why the Norwegian share of the total catch in the north-east Atlantic was in steep decline between the wars. In 1913 Norway was responsible for 47 per cent of the total cod catch in the area, but in 1937 the figure was only 27 per cent. In the same period the total cod catch increased from about 750,000 tons to about one million tons.10 This also reflects the fact that for various reasons the Norwegian share of the cod market was declining. Although the consumption of fish in general had expanded since the beginning of the century, a large part of the growth was the result of different nations fishing for their home market, producing fresh fish, salted fish, canned fish, etc. In contrast, the Norwegian exports of cod were dominated by salted dry cod (clip fish) or dry cod (stockfish), products for which the market became difficult for various reasons during the interwar period. In important markets like Spain and Portugal the Norwegian exporters faced increasing competition from domestic companies who caught large catches around Newfoundland and Greenland, as well as from Ice- landic cod which gained an increasingly large part of the market. From 1913 to 1937 Iceland increased its total catch by 361 per cent, while Norway’s showed a growth of only 142 per cent. In addition, the international market itself became difficult because of protectionism, import 375 quotas and so forth. The market for Norwegian dry and salted cod was also severely damaged by the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and the ensuing sanctions against Italy, and also by the Spanish civil war and its impact on the market.